A short rain shower fell over the edge of Freymeadow’s village square as the shimmering spheres of water that Scarlett had summoned burst apart all as one. She watched the droplets sink into the ground for a moment, then raised the towel on her lap to wipe away the sweat from her forehead.

[Name: Scarlett Hartford][Skills:[Greater Mana Control][Greater Pyromancy][Superior Pyrokinesis][Greater Hydromancy][Superior Hydrokinesis]][Traits:[Dignified August][Supercilious][Cavalier][Callous][Overbearing][Conceited][Third-rate Mana Veins]][Mana: 1745/4747][Points: 10]

[Skills Menu:Upgrades[Superior Pyromancy] (25 points)[Major Pyrokinesis] (50 points)[Superior Hydromancy] (25 points)[Major Hydrokinesis] (50 points)[Superior Mana Control] (25 points)New skills [LOCKED]]

She had recently upgraded the hydrokinesis skill, from [Greater Hydrokinesis] to [Superior Hydrokinesis], as well as the hydromancy skill, to [Greater Hydromancy]. Just as with pyrokinesis, the leap from Greater to Superior for hydrokinesis was far more notable than the one from [Hydrokinesis] to [Greater Hydrokinesis] had originally been. It would take some time getting used to, considering hydrokinesis as a skill offered more flexibility than pyrokinesis and there were tons of experiments she wanted to do, but that was what was so great with Freymeadow.

Scarlett had been sitting on a total of 45 skill points after clearing Abelard’s Doll Mansion and the other dungeons in Autumnwell. Originally, she had been thinking of saving up to upgrade her pyrokinesis one step further, but since she was still in the process of learning how to properly use her magic even at its current level, she didn’t want to rush things for the time being. She wasn’t lacking in new skill points either, so she doubted she would have to wait for too long before she had gathered the same amount again.

Another reason she had decided to upgrade hydrokinesis instead was also because she’d felt the skill was falling behind lately. Barring her Aqua Mines, her hydrokinesis didn’t have too much viability in combat against the stronger foes they’d faced lately. Spending 35 skill points to upgrade it along with hydromancy would hopefully help with that, as well as afford her more options in the future.

She glanced at how much mana she had left at the moment.

[Mana: 1745/4747]

During these practice sessions, she tried to take things slow and be economical with her mana. But honestly, she felt pretty tired now, so she would probably call this one off early. One last push before resting would be enough.

Raising her hand, she conjured several tendrils of water in front of her. They floated in the air like a formation of thin whips, reflecting the midday sun. She turned her attention to a thick tree trunk that Rosa had gotten the help of some villagers to carry here the previous day. The bark on it was both charred and battered in places, with gashes across its side revealing the bright wood beneath.

The water whips moved at her mental urging. Several cracks rang out across the village square as they struck the trunk, and she repeated the action over and over again. Each whip moved faster than she could see, and in her mind, she likened the barrage to that of a kraken beating a ship on the seas. The sight itself was impressive, and most would probably hesitate to approach her if they saw something like this.

Scarlett squinted her eyes.

The results, however, were somewhat lacklustre. Some of the strikes sent small pieces of bark flying, creating more of the gashes that covered the trunk’s frame, but it probably wouldn’t leave much more than a red mark or a bruise on most people. People like Fynn and Kat might not even notice it.

When her mana finally started running low, she dismissed the whip-like tendrils. Then, to finish things off, she summoned two large Aqua Mines and detonated them. The trunk visibly shook from the blast, and bark flew in all directions. A few even reached Scarlett, though [Sidhe’s Flowing Garb] protected her from actually being hurt.

She let out a sigh, feeling more of the exhaustion from using up her mana set in.

Making the water created through her hydrokinesis solid enough to where it could actually cause damage was still a hard task, even after upgrading the skill. She needed more time to perfect it, if that was even possible with how she was doing things now. But this was still good progress, and the upgrade allowed her to put a lot more power into her mines, in addition to giving her more options when it came to distractions and the like. She was even considering if it could be used defensively if her reactions were quick enough.

With tired legs, she rose from her chair and walked over to sit on the porch where Arlene was. As usual, the cool air up here was a welcome reprieve from Freymeadow’s warm summer climate.

She observed Arlene for a moment. For some reason, the older woman had looked more tired than usual lately, the dark sections under her eyes clearly visible at the moment. Her focus was still placed on the book on her lap, however, as was standard, and she barely paid Scarlett any mind even when she sat down next to her. That wasn’t to say Arlene didn’t do anything else other than read. The woman had clearly been paying more attention than usual to Scarlett recently.

After the wizard’s impromptu lecture on magic and the ‘correct approach’ to it a couple of days before, it felt like she had become a lot more open when it came to advising her on these things.

Well, ‘open’ might be a strong word. Scarlett still suspected Arlene took great joy in confusing her and only barely telling her what she wanted to know, and it wasn’t as if the woman had bothered to actually explain anything else since then. Despite that, however, she did make more comments than usual during Scarlett’s practice sessions. Not especially explanatory ones, but comments nonetheless.

Most of the time, it was just something generally unhelpful like “that’s wrong” or “don’t do that”. But the timing of those comments was usually very good, like when Scarlett was using her mana inefficiently or was close to losing control of her magic. The warnings had at least been enough to make things slightly easier for her.

For example, when Scarlett had first started trying to create those whip-tendrils the day before, she’d had problems making the water stay both rigid and elastic at the same time. Solidifying her water was something she learned a while ago now, but this turned out to be a lot harder. It hadn’t been enough to just imagine the water being both. So instead, she had attempted to think of her magic in the way Arlene had told her before. Like a complete existence or system, instead of a collection of smaller parts.

Suffice it to say, it didn’t go well at first. She didn’t actually know how to start from there, and so she had simply created a mass of water with her hydrokinesis to feel her way forward. Which was about when Arlene had started telling her when she was doing things wrong.

Literally. Every. Single. Time.

Scarlett had spent probably more than half a day, trial-and-erroring her way forward, until she finally succeeded in creating a water whip that acted like she wanted. But she had no idea how she did it, since all she did was adjust her mana in different ways whenever Arlene said something. She could recreate the whips without too much issue, but she couldn’t understand how they worked, and they were far too complex for her to analyze how the mana was structured and learn from that. Her Aqua Mines were like science fair potato batteries compared to these.

That said, she felt like the act of creating the whips—even if she didn’t know what she was doing—had helped her realize part of what Arlene had actually been trying to say. Because recreating them was ridiculously easy compared to the first time, and it wasn’t simply because she had ‘memorized’ it. If she were to describe the sensation, it was less like remembering how to ride a bike and more like remembering that if you turned the faucet exactly a certain amount of degrees, a certain amount of water poured out. Except you had hundreds of faucets, and after touching one faucet, the others changed.

…It was strange. That’s all she could say. Strange and annoying.

Still, she felt an appreciation towards Arlene for at least helping her this much, despite the woman’s other somewhat infuriating tendencies.

Letting those thoughts float to the back of her mind for now, Scarlett leaned back in her chair and relaxed. She casually brought a hand down to her waist, pulling out something from her [Pouch of Holding].

[Obedience’s Solitude Loci (Unique)]{Strange powers of an itinerant realm dwell within this stone, creating something more than what was there before. The souls that were once tied to it have been severed}

A soft green light emanated from within the uncut emerald, but that was about all right now. As Abelard had done in his mansion, she wanted to place it inside her home to make use of its effects, but it wasn’t quite as simple as she had originally hoped. She’d been trying to figure out how it worked for a while now, with little progress. It wasn’t as if the damn thing came with a manual.

In the game, it had been enough to just put it on a pedestal in your house, and then it would automatically take effect. She had already tried that, however, without success. She’d even tried placing it in different rooms around the mansion and leaving it for a while, but it hadn’t made a difference.

That was why she had been examining the Loci further during some of her breaks here in Freymeadow. Back when she had used it to open the portal to the Wandering Realm in Abelard’s mansion, it had been enough to simply wish for it to happen. Her hunch was that the key getting the Loci to work was somehow related to intent and the forming of a connection of some sort, but the details eluded her.

“You’ve been staring at that for quite some time,” Arlene suddenly said from the side.

Scarlett turned to the woman. Was that interest in her voice? Or at least a hint of curiosity? She had asked Arlene about the Loci once the day before, but the woman hadn’t seemed to want to give a proper answer then.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No.” Arlene glanced up at her, then down at the Loci. “But I can tell that it was made by a master. Or at least finished by one.”

“It was crafted by an archmage.”

“That would explain it.” The woman eyed the gem for another second before returning her attention to her book.

Scarlett studied her. Hearing it was made by an archmage didn’t seem like a shock, at least.

“His name was Baron Abelard Withersworth,” she said.

“Withersworth, you say?” Arlene brought a finger up to her mouth to wet is as she turned a page.

“Yes. Do you recognize the name?”

“I know a Withersworth,” the woman answered. “Can’t say I recall him being a baron. He was a decent enough mage, though, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the emperor saw fit to reward his efforts.”

Scarlett observed her for a while longer. “I see…”

She had asked that out of pure curiosity, but she hadn’t really expected Arlene to know of Abelard. The woman’s casual response was surprising, though. It wasn’t the sort of answer one would expect from someone in her position.

How much did the woman actually know about the circumstances surrounding this place?

She wanted to ask, but she doubted Arlene would be particularly forthcoming. Their relationship was relatively good in this loop as well, so she didn’t see the point of pressing the issue at the moment.

Scarlett turned her attention back to the Loci, running a hand over its smooth surface. For now, this was her priority.

“As you might have been able to tell, I have been trying to determine how this artifact works,” she said, peeking at Arlene. “You would not happen to have any advice to share related to that?”

The woman turned her head to the side to look at the Loci, staying quiet for a few seconds.

“…It seems to originate from the Wandering Realm, judging from the energy it’s exuding, but I suspect you already knew that much. That is not exactly within my area of expertise, but I do have a couple of ideas. What’s your intention with it?”

“I plan to place it inside my home, where its main purpose will be to secure the estate and ward off any trespassers. I also suspect that it might have some other aspects to it that could prove beneficial in the future.”

Arlene looked up at Scarlett, eyeing her. “If you just want to keep away intruders, there are much simpler methods than obtaining an enchanted artifact crafted by an archmage.”

“Perhaps.” Scarlett raised her shoulders in a light shrug. “But I already have this in my possession now, do I not? It would be a waste not to make proper use of it. And I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to matters like these.”

That earned a short laugh from the woman. “If that’s all, then it probably won’t be that difficult.” She gestured to the Loci. “You should try to listen to it and go from there. If you’re telling the truth, that much should be enough to get you started.”

Scarlett frowned. “What do you mean by ‘listen’?”

She’d tried connecting to the Loci as she had back in Abelard’s mansion several times already. Never had she ‘heard’ anything.

“That gem hails from the Wandering Realm,” Arlene said. “I’m not sure how much you know of that place, but there, everything has a will of sorts. If you want that gem to do what you want, the easiest way would be to fulfill whatever its will might be. Another option would be forcing your own will on it, but I doubt you have the experience or the knowledge to accomplish that.”

Scarlett looked down at the Loci. She supposed Abelard must have done the latter, but the woman was correct in saying that would be hard for her. She didn’t have an inkling of how it could be done. The first alternative sounded a lot more feasible and aligned with what she had been trying to do.

Perhaps she could bring the Loci back to the fairies in Temisbrook Glade and get their help somehow? They seemed to have been fond of her last time, and they would probably be able to ‘listen’ to the Loci better than she could. But that would require her to go all the way to the capital and travel by carriage to Temisbrook. With her current schedule, she couldn’t do it anytime soon.

She tapped a finger against the Loci’s surface.

It was named [Obedience’s Solitude Loci], wasn’t it?

The items in the game had never been randomly named, as far as she could tell. There was always some meaning behind them. So it was possible that ‘obedience’ and ‘solitude’ somehow tied into whatever the Loci’s will was.

Obedience suggested either that it would follow a master of some kind, or that it could force obedience upon others in some way. Considering how the item was meant to be placed in the player’s house in the game, the former was more likely.

Solitude, however, could mean a lot of things. It could simply mean that the Loci needed to be placed somewhere where there were no others around. It could also refer to how it ensured the ‘solitude’ of its master and its surroundings, which fit with what she suspected it had done in Abelard’s mansion. Or, maybe, it just had something to do with how the item was originally formed. While Abelard would have been the one that crafted and enchanted the Loci into what it was today, like Arlene mentioned, its core was originally from the Wandering Realm.

She turned back to the woman. “Do you know of a way that I could determine what its ‘will’ might be?”

Arlene shook her head. “Not other than what I just told you.”

“Hmm… Very well. I am grateful for your advice, nonetheless. Both related to this, and with the other matters you have previously aided me in. I will endeavour not to forget it in the future.”

“I’m sure you will.”

Arlene went quiet, and Scarlett kept examining the Loci for a while longer. Next she returned to Freybrook, there were a few things she had to try out.